MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 341 



The first of these, if distinct, as I suspect they are, agrees 

 very well with the young of one which Lister observed as 

 remai'kable for taking aerial flights* ; and which I have 

 most usually seen so engaged. The other may possibly 

 be that before noticed, which he found in such infinite 

 numbers in Cambridgeshire''. If this conjecture be cor- 

 rect, it will prove that the same species first produce the 

 gossamer that covers the ground, and then, shooting 

 other threads, mount upon them into the air. 



My last query was. What causes these webs ultimately 

 to fall to the earth ? Mr. White's observation will I 

 think furnish the best answer. " If the spiders have the 

 power of coiling up their webs in the air, as Dr. Lister 

 affirms, then when they become heavier than the air they 

 will fall '^." The more expanded the web, the lighter 

 and more buoyant, and the more condensed, the heavier 

 it must be. 



I trust you will allow from this mass of evidence, that 

 the English Arachiwlogists — may I coin this term ? — 

 were correct in their account of this singular phenomenon; 

 and think, with me, that Swammerdam (who however ad- 

 mits that spiders sail on their webs), and after him De 

 Geer, were rather hasty when they stigmatized the dis- 

 covery that these animals shoot their webs into the air, 

 and so take flight, as a strange and unfounded opinion ''. 

 The fact, though so well authenticated, is indeed strange 

 and wonderful, and affords another proof of the extraor- 

 dinary powers, unparalleled in the higher orders of ani- 

 mals, with which the Creator has gifted the insect world. 

 Were indeed man and the larger animals, with their pre- 

 sent propensities, similarly endowed, the whole creation 



" De Arancis, 66. ^ Ibid. 79. ' JVat. Hist. I 326. 



" Swamm. Bibl. Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 24. De Gcer, vii, 190. 



